


to challenge an alpha

by fortemps (kemonomimi), sylleblossom (kemonomimi)



Series: tribes, strays, and ferals [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: ( I seem to have misplaced my keyboard ), Feral Katana Boys, Fight Scene, Genetic Engineering, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Multi, Pretty sure sword-fighting counts as foreplay, Sephiroth/Angeal/Genesis (mentioned), This contributes towards my end goal of a SephGenZenos sandwich shamelessly in the future, What Have I Done, Wolf-pack based Alpha/Beta/Omega, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27277981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kemonomimi/pseuds/fortemps, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kemonomimi/pseuds/sylleblossom
Summary: two unparalleled fighters meet their match.
Relationships: Zenos yae Galvus/Sephiroth
Series: tribes, strays, and ferals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910845
Kudos: 10





	to challenge an alpha

**Author's Note:**

> this came from my brain womb and i could not work on anything else until it was done. i have the ishgard trinity to write into this au; i don't have time for this nonsense.
> 
> yet apparently i do. 
> 
> this takes place in my kh-based series under a different pseud but since none of the locations are specific kh locations i'm not tagging it.
> 
> i've never written either of these characters or a fight scene and i did so in a haze of passion so... forgive me.

Sephiroth takes to wandering often after Cloud and Zack depart from the pack.

He still returns to a patient Angeal and an irritated Genesis, but only when the voice stops. Calling out the name of the beast within is supposed to deflate the situation, not intensify it; Jenova apparently chooses to not adhere to the rules. 

More than once has he awoken from his daze to find his teeth deeply set in Minerva’s neck, trying to rip out the lifeforce of their pack’s only remaining omega. Genesis can only hold Sephiroth at bay by himself for so long and not even Angeal’s assistance can keep him away from the red wolf’s neck. Minerva prolongs the fight, but Genesis still reverts back to himself with deeply scarring teeth marks seared into his skin.

It makes Sephiroth’s stomach churn.

He has it down to a science, now. When the foreboding feeling settles in his veins, he leaves.

Such is the price for a lifetime of torment at the hands of an oily snake of a man and the implanted beast to whom he does not truly belong. She lends her strength, but she takes away his reason. Were his pack instincts not so strong, were Angeal and Genesis not so keen to keep him by their sides, he would have abandoned them for a life of solitude long ago.

Perhaps their unnatural and reluctant ex-pack member has the right of it — loneliness is more manageable than reverting back to feral bloodshed.

She has been howling at him all day, demanding he burn Gaia’s forest to the ground and build her _own_ kingdom. Jenova did not suit the role of a beastial form at all — she is harshly matronly and unyielding like this, even as he still stood on two legs with only ears and a tail instead of the massive silver wolf whose skin she often bid him to take. 

He knows of no other who is tormented by their beast as such and some part of him wishes she would stay silent.

For a moment, he is granted his wish. Abruptly Jenova silences — though it is the way she lingers in his veins that is the calm before the storm. Did Genesis follow him again? The cool, flat voice behind him proves his assumption wrong.

“I grow tired of beasts with empty howls. They ought not cry at all for they are so easily silenced. What of you?”

Sephiroth glances over his shoulder, moonsilk locks seamlessly parting for a proper look at the stranger.

He towers above Sephiroth in height — a fact nearly unnerving enough to prompt a snarl — and moves with the easy, slow grace of a practiced warrior confident of his own abilities. He approaches with the clank of steel against steel and the mask he wears is unceremoniously tossed aside to reveal pale blue eyes. Bored. Empty. Any marks of challenge are hidden behind the ostentatious armor, but his very aura emanates a torrent of slashes of victories.

The thrill of the hunt sparks and ignites and sings in Sephiroth’s veins without the howls of Jenova.

“The sword at your side — are you worth wielding it? Are you naught but another howling beast? Does the length of it compensate for a lack of skill?” 

The words are a taunt, bait dangling over an empty, peerlessly powerful wolf and he nearly succumbs to the invitation of battle without a spare thought.

“You possess three. Perhaps you should consider your own questions instead.”

Silence falls between the pair. Glistening gold measures shining silver. Blue eyes flicker to life. “Let us dance, savage, and let bloodshed speak for itself.” The bundle at his side whirls mechanically and the stranger pulls forth a katana of red.

The ignition flickers into an inferno.

The two warriors circle one another, both with the lackadaisical grace of masters of the craft. “If I wanted to hear poetic nonsense, I would return to my pack and listen to its omega sing,” the wolf answers blithely.

Yet it is Sephiroth who lunges first, his Masamune as quick as the strike of a cobra. It meets the crimson steel and the man pushes forward with a speed his heavy armor should not allow. Again steel meets steel and the air glows with electricity. Sephiroth is seasoned in combat; he is long out of reach before the storm breaks into sharp lightning. The ground around him glows red, imitation swords buried in the ground around Sephiroth, but he does not bother with shattering them.

Cloud’s split swords were far more difficult to avoid than that of a quickly dashing suit of armor and a blast — or so he thinks until the intensity of it burns at his flesh and forces his stance to shift in the sand.

Sephiroth recovers quickly, meets katana against katana with equal strength. Both shift back and forth as they exchange blows, equal to equal. With each deflected blow, the bloodlust in a once-empty gaze glows brighter and brighter.

Sephiroth’s own catlike eyes reflect the same hunger for blood.

“Yes, yes! At last a beast worth the hunt!” 

“Who is the hunter and who is the prey?” Sephiroth taunts just as easily, trading blow for blow.

It earns him a laugh, unhinged but so _lively_ that it sparks Jenova to life and Sephiroth’s thoughts intertwine with hers again. _Destroy. Take. Break._ He snaps at open air, instincts free and control abandoned. _Destoy, take, break. Destroytakebreak._

Fierce wings break from the back of the unknown warrior, accompanied by a lashing tail. The unnatural look in his eyes reminds Sephiroth of his own as sharp, quick jabs at one another spill blood in the sand. Jenova is unnatural; this man is unnatural. But the talent in his blade is not, nor is the skill of the Masamune’s wielder. 

The sun sets by the time the two mutually part, eyes sharp and evaluative. They both pant for air. Sephiroth has not felt his lungs burn in such a way since before Hojo ripped his friends to shreds and sewed them back together into something new, when they once stood as equal alphas fighting for dominance, instead of a pack that forced Angeal beneath him, and Genesis even more so.

He no longer seeks the thrill of chasing the oddity, of hunting Cloud. No, this man is far more intriguing.

“Your name, savage; I demand it.” The way the blond casually slips his weapon back into its strange sheath declares that the fight is over. It is a declaration of a stand-still and yet the promise of another in the future.

“Sephiroth.” He answers only because he seeks the name of the one who stands, for now, as his equal -- an alpha in every right without the blood of the wolves of Gaia. This man looms as a challenge to his authority, and a worthy one. How long has it been since he felt the lust of combat?

“Zenos.” Despite the fight coming to a close, his blue eyes remain full of feral strength. 

A long, pointed tail eases itself from the confines of his armor and webbed wings settle against his back. A chimera, Sephiroth recognizes -- but the beast he displayed in their fight was something different all together. The form of a dragon he took, but a chimera he is. It reminds him of another blond who so seamlessly traversed the order of the pack — altered, different — just like himself.

“We will dance again.” Zenos promises, voice low. There is a flicker of something else besides the taste for blood in his eyes; it reminds him of the look Genesis uses to cajole his way into Sephiroth’s bed -- heavy-lidded and searing. 

Ah.

Zenos challenge runs far deeper than the fight of an equal. Sephiroth notes it as Jenova quiets again. He challenges Sephiroth’s role in his pack too. Death is but a goal to bring an end to their waltz as a whole; for now fights loom on the horizon, and Sephiroth has more at stake than crimson staining empty sand beneath his feet.

His lips curl over his canines. With such a promise looming in the future, how can he do anything but anticipate it? His sentiment seems to be shared.

When the moon shines in the blackened sky, when stars light their sharp features, they both turn away simultaneously and return to whence they came.

The night Sephiroth dreams of blond hair and tastes the tang of blood in his mouth even as Angeal and Genesis stay stalwart at his side upon his return and the fiery omega weasels his way into the ex-General’s bed again alongside the more even-tempered beta. They are his pack regardless of Jenova’s screams and demands.

Yes, next time there will be more on the line, and Sephiroth cannot claim that he does not lust for it despite the deep affection he feels for the two wolves curled by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> i just.
> 
> listen. feral katana boyfriends. hostile pack takeover. its happening. don't @ me.
> 
> actually do @ me i'm windupzenos on twitter. i take writing coms and editing coms on the sly, shhh.
> 
> also you could join [the bookclub](https://discord.gg/e6w5Smx) for more ffxiv-only content if ya wanna. tell 'em fortemps sent ya.


End file.
